After the first opponent, the rest started coming more readily. His second enemy had been a girl with radioactive touch, which seemed like a cool power, though with the much less cool drawback of having to make physical contact with the opponent for it to work. Charlie, who had been formally trained in hand-to-hand by his mother and his very competitive older brothers, felt somewhat guilty taking the girl down, rather like he had just kicked a puppy. But he tried to knock her out as gently as he could.

His third and fourth chips had both come from a boy who was able to meld with inanimate objects, or at least that's how it had seemed as his upper half came gliding through the walls with his lower half seemingly buried in the metal.

This matchup had been much trickier, and had boiled down to timing more than skill. He had popped out of the walls at random intervals, launching punches at every available opportunity. Charlie, who was quite durable naturally, didn't even need his armour to withstand most of the blows, although a sharp uppercut that left a bloody nose in its wake left him wishing he had been using it. But eventually the matchup seemed to devolve into a kind of whack-a-mole competition. It had taken almost half an hour by Charlie's estimate, but after some time he finally managed to land the decisive blow.

The challenger fell unconscious and came slipping out of the metal, his lower half glowing slightly orange. He had come bearing three chips, so Charlie took the two he had been allotted and set off to find his fifth and final chip, the one that would push him on to Level 3.

Briefly he wondered how the others were doing. Then he shook his head and chuckled. They were fine, of course. Maddison had secured a reputation as one of the top students in the year; Reya was a magic-user, and his friendship with her had made him privy to the knowledge that they had an entire arsenal of amazing techniques they could crack open to handle almost any situation. Plus, she had been positively itching with excitement when the Battle Royale had been announced, desperate for the chance to prove that she was just as good as the other students even though she was the only non-superhuman in a school specifically designed for them. No, there was no need to worry about her. It was the students unlucky enough to cross her path that warranted his concern.

Alec had apparently been making great strides in his training as well. So the only real people to worry about were Ethan, whose laziness was even stronger than his telekinesis, and Javon, who was ill-disposed to battle. They would have the hardest time among all of them, but they had been preparing for these kinds of situations since they had first enrolled here. Several months of training had to have yielded some results, right?

As he turned a corner, he found himself looking up at another figure emerging from the corridor beyond. The duo noticed each other at the same time, and both halted immediately.

The girl at the end of the corridor was pale-skinned, with hair so straight it might have been set using a ruler. Her eyes were a vivid amber colour, and she was wearing the blue and silver of Poseidon. Charlie had never seen her before, which was odd, because she was definitely the kind of person to stand out in a crowd.

This part of the fights was always the most awkward. The meeting. He could never figure out whether or not he should attack immediately or stutter through some kind of greeting. It wasn't a battle to the death between villains and heroes, after all.

It was a class test between peers, and viciously smacking your classmates around without even a preliminary hello didn't seem like the sort of thing that would engender positive student relationships.

His enemy, however, didn't seem to share the same sentiments. She took several steps back as she took in the new target in front of her, and her irises began to glow pale gold. Charlie tensed, energy of the same colour springing around his wrists, coiling and interlocking to summon the hands of his exoskeleton. Then, to his very great surprise, the air shimmered and the girl disappeared entirely, vanishing into thin air as if she had simply evaporated. An invisible girl. Great.

Luckily, Charlie had been trained to handle situations like this too. His mother had been very thorough in what scenarios she believed he should be able to handle, due to the immense diversity of possible enemies he would face. She had never gone too far into detail, as she wanted to let Helix do their jobs and for him to be able to adapt to these kinds of situations as well, but he had learned enough.

The easiest way to handle an invisible opponent was by using your other senses. They couldn't be seen, but they could still be heard and felt. For the first time since the examination had begun, the fact that he was trapped in a tight, underground, metallic labyrinth was actually an advantage. This way, the girl would have an extremely hard time maneuvering out of his area of impact. One solid fist to the ground to cause a ripple to overturn her and she would be found. At least, that was the idea. It could play out entirely differently, but that was part of the learning curve. But apparently his opponent had other plans. Before he could even do more than flex his fingers, his surroundings fell away into a void, replaced by deep, empty blackness. In a split second, all sight was extinguished.

"What the —?" Charlie yelped, stumbling backwards. What was going on? Was she a Shadow Elemental? That would be the only explanation as to how she had managed to engulf the entire corridor in darkness in only a moment, but . . . No. There were only two Elementals at this school.

That had been a hot topic of discussion in the earlier days of the semester. It seemed completely unbelievable that only two of them could be here at this time, given that Elementals were such a popular archetype of superhumans. If there was another Elemental, especially a Shadow one, the whole school would know, seeing as the debacle with Shadow Shifter had set the school on fire for weeks.

So how had she done it?

"Ow!"

He had been taking short steps backwards without even realizing it, and now his head slammed into something hard and metallic. He reached around gingerly, utterly bewildered, and his hand made contact with a cold metal surface. Now he didn't know much about the texture of solid darkness, but he knew it definitely didn't feel like this. A gentle tap on the ground around him alerted him that something was moving, and a second later he felt something brush against his chest.

He immediately launched himself sideways, rolling into the darkness. For a moment, it seemed a silly risk to take. He wasn't entirely sure of what was going on here and this could have taken a vastly different route if he had been wrong, but the fingers had most curiously brushed closer to his neck, which was where he had hung his chip from his shoelace.

Thankfully Professor Elliott had left a small hole with which they could do so for convenience, but the truly interesting thing was the position of where the attack had come from.

"I get it now," Charlie said to the writhing wall of endless darkness. "You're an Illusionist. You create mirages. Took me a moment to get it, because this is more vivid than any mirage I've ever seen. Unfortunately for you, hallucinations only ever work in one dimension."

A loud, annoyed sigh came in response. "So you figured it out? Doesn't change anything. Even if the darkness isn't really real, it's real enough to you, and that's what matters. You can't see, so you can't fight."

Charlie imitated the sound of a buzzer. "Incorrect," he said. "Now that I know what I'm dealing with, I know just how to handle it." He clenched his fist, summoning his boxer's glove of metallic-looking energy, and he smashed his fist into the ground.

A deafening clang exploded outwards. The ground rippled and immediately he was met with a scream and the sound of something heavy toppling over.

"Sadly for you, you don't seem to have a combat-based power. Which means you can't hurt me. So I'm guessing that's why you tried to distract me with the darkness and grab my chip. It's not a bad plan, you were just paired with an inconvenient opponent. I excel at Close Combat. And while I would feel tremendously guilty about hitting someone who couldn't really fight back, I'd feel even worse if I lost the exam because of my moral obligations. So I'd surrender if I were you."

To emphasize his point, he rubbed his fists together, letting the sound of his gloves grinding against each other permeate the air.

There was a beat of silence, in which he imagined her glaring at him through the non-existent darkness from the other side of the room. Then, as suddenly as it had come, the darkness vanished and the corridor came back into view, colours and shapes splashing back into position as if a video had been set to rewind. The girl was on her knees, looking extremely disheartened.

"I surrender," she said, her eyes trained on the wall to her left.

As expected, a pang of regret stabbed at Charlie's heart. He really was an unbearable softy. His mother had told him it would get him in trouble, if not killed, but he couldn't help it. He let the energy gloves drop and walked over to her.

"It was a good match," he said, holding out his hand to her. Her gaze was still fixed on the wall to their left. "It's just that, I have some experience dealing with situations like this. Nothing to feel bad about."

She seemed to ponder the sentiment for a moment, her expression still grumpy. Then she sighed, softening, and reached a hand out to him. It was then that she finally turned her eyes towards him, and what he saw made him gasp. Empty sockets of pure, roiling blackness. Her hand slipped through his, as if she was some kind of ghost, then her entire body vanished in a wisp of smoke. Before Charlie could make any sense of what had just happened, a sharp kick landed in his back and he went skating forward, bouncing slightly as he went.

He looked around to see his opponent, looking deeply unimpressed. "Seriously? All it took was one sad expression and you melted? Pathetic," she scoffed. "You were right about one thing, though. I don't have an offensive power to overwhelm you with. But it doesn't mean I'm a helpless damsel."

All at once, a dozen more of her sprouted into existence, filling the corridor. All of them had the same empty, black eyes, glaring down at him. Charlie sighed. It wasn't an easy thing to admit, but his mother had been right after all.

It wasn't the most difficult fight he had endured so far, but it was undoubtedly the most frustrating. His very senses were being used against him. It wasn't just sight either; somehow this girl was capable of manufacturing fake sounds as well. She would create entire elaborate scenes out of nowhere, completely immaculate in appearance, Charlie would be swept up in it, then she would launch a harsh blow at him and rush him as he fell. Three times already she had almost secured his chip, and only due to his well honed reflexes was he able to avoid instant elimination.

"You can't keep this up forever, you know," the copy of her in front of him said. Or maybe it was the real one. He simply couldn't tell anymore.

"Neither can you."

"No, but I don't need to do it forever," said the one directly behind him, leaning against the wall and filing her nails.

"Just long enough to take you down," the one to his left said. "You must have noticed. Each time I get closer and closer to grabbing the chip completely."

Yes, he certainly had noticed it. Unfortunately, there wasn't much he could do like this.

As he struggled to find his footing again, she came charging at him. Charlie hesitated; this was one of the biggest issues in this fight. Was it the real copy, or another illusion? Should he attempt to stop the attack now, or brace himself for the blow that would surely come after? If it was the real one and he didn't dodge, she would have the perfect opportunity to deliver another hit. And while he was quite tough, taking hit after hit, even from someone who didn't have super strength, was a bad idea.

He decided to chance it. He would react to this blow, then ready himself for the next and hopefully catch the real body at the same time. Unluckily for him, that was the wrong decision. The one coming at him was revealed to be a distraction when a sharp jab to his ribs left him flat on his knees and gasping for air. At the same time, a set of slender fingers reached for his chip, brushing against his shirt.

This time she actually succeeded in grabbing it. But Charlie seized her hand at the same time, blanketing it in his own. His hand blazed with energy, forming his gauntlet over his fingers.

There was a gasp and a scream and her grip loosened as the sudden eruption of energy blazed against her skin. He caught her hand and tossed her down the corridor, where she rolled for a few seconds before coming to a halt. Or so it had sounded. He still couldn't see her, hidden under the mirage she had conjured. Even as he listened for any sound of movement, the pain radiated through his side and he winced. She had definitely been trained in hand-to-hand before coming to Helix, which made sense. Her ability wasn't a directly offensive one. She had to earn her wins somehow, and she did so by being quick, clever, and skilled with her hands.

"I don't understand," Charlie said clutching his side, "how you're still here. You surrendered. Professor Elliott made it very clear that 'any utterance of those words, no matter the context, is an instant disqualification.' You should have been eliminated, even if it was a trick."

Another scoff. "I didn't actually say the words out loud, genius. No one heard them except you, because you're the only one affected by the mirage."

That actually made sense, and now Charlie chastised himself for being so stupid that he didn't realize initially. The longer this match drew on, the more chances she got to eliminate him. He was holding himself back worrying about hurting her, when she was gratefully taking the chance to do as much damage as possible. Unfortunately, his mindset would never fly as a Hero. In that position, it would be his duty to protect the innocent, and it wouldn't end well if his own morals conflicted with his responsibilities. Lives could be lost due to his weakness.

He had sat with Reya countless times, discussing the possibility of graduating along with her in the class of the next Heroes to be shipped out into the world. That possibility would never become a reality if he failed these examinations. The simple truth was, not every villain was going to be a vicious monster like the Shifter he had fought. Some of them were just like this girl, people who couldn't fight back the way he could, who appeared helpless on the surface, but still evil and dangerous.

It was never going to be easy taking them down, but the idea of them winning was unthinkable.

He took a deep breath, which was all the more painful given the jab she had thrust at him. But he looked up with determination in his eyes. Knowing her, Reya was already waiting for him on Level 3. He wouldn't be left behind here. They had made a pact, to advance together, and he wouldn't dishonour it.

The air around him shimmered again — an indication that the illusion was about to be altered. She was about to come at him again, and this would be where their fight came to a conclusion, regardless of who won. He would make sure of it.

Several more copies of her popped into existence, and this time they were all charging for him. Which meant, judging by her pattern of attack thus far, that the real one was as far away from the crowd as possible. Still, he kept up the pretenses, staring right at them. One constant he noticed with her design was the eyes. The eyes were always different, always turned to the side, or oddly shaped, or pitch-black. He would have to remember to follow up on why when the match was done, but right now he would have to trust himself, trust his other senses. He closed his eyes, because right now they were only a liability.

He waited while they came, even mirroring the gentle patter of footsteps. It was truly remarkable. To be able to trick the body into thinking it was hearing sounds too, she must be very skilled despite her age. But even so, while the visuals were top notch, the audio could use a bit of work.

In an instant he was up, his hand shooting up towards the place where the footsteps sounded much heavier, where the clanging of feet on metal struck. The only sound she didn't take into account to recreate.

His fist shot up, coated in energy, his eyes still closed. But that didn't natter, because he felt his fist connect with the target anyway. He heard the gasp of shock, the yell of pain; he could almost feel the punch driving the air from her very lungs. She was blown backwards. The sound of her body smacking into the wall permeated the air, and he knew it was over.

Charlie opened his eyes at last and looked around. She was lying on the floor, unconscious, and every other copy of her in the vicinity rippled and disappeared as the air shimmered once more.

He dragged himself up and over to her, then took the chip she had fixed into her hair. He leaned her up against the wall in a position more dignified than messily sprawled across the ground. Then Charlie fitted his fifth and final chip into his compass, whose arrows began to glow green, pointing him towards the next level.